This game could be so much more. Fantastic graphics and visual presentation, killer soundtrack but with not enough variations of the battle themes that will make you crazy after hearing it for the 1000th time. There's something for completionists here, but take care.
Loved hearing the japanese voices of the characters tho.
Edit:
Almost 50h later, i stand here trapped in a calm sea of endless grinding and you know what? I'm loving it! I mean, the things i said before this edit are still somehow valid to account for. The game is an ode for classic era rpg all right, but it's entirely built around grinding. Don't get me wrong, the individual chapters are the most cliche-anime that they can be, but just like Live a Live, there's some sasuga moments that leaves you just ready to wreck some crazy boss fight with your most broken skills and spells and that's something that happen very often.
This game would work wonders as a tv show.
I must elaborate further though. While i was bored after reaching all cast chapter 2 — and that was quite soon in-game — i've managed to optimize my party members with secondary jobs, found EX Skills while exploring tha map, even some badass looking weapons with broken stats that managed to carry my travelers thoughout the mid section of the game.
Now that i've finished most of the exploring, the game left me feeling a little bored, there is many secret challenges ahead, towards the true ending and all, but it keeps me wondering, is it worth it? Playing this game for days straight was worth something for me, but i just can't seem to lose this bad taste that i'm playing a sandbox rpg with no soul.
The game is filled to the brimm with beautiful pixel characters, that 16bit nostalgia drive but at the same time we're trapped in this world where there's no true emotional bond between the characters, we get travel banter in the form of a notification on the top of the screen and cross-stories that are just anime filler episodes. The grand scheme of things is somehow linked to every protagonist of the game but there's a lot of room to improve.
This game lacks the drive of the characters of Chrono Trigger, a goal and that teamwork banter that also exists in their individual stories. It feels really strange that character chapters are written like this. I'm keeping the 2,5 stars but i'm also warning you that there is fun here and you should check it out.
Loved hearing the japanese voices of the characters tho.
Edit:
Almost 50h later, i stand here trapped in a calm sea of endless grinding and you know what? I'm loving it! I mean, the things i said before this edit are still somehow valid to account for. The game is an ode for classic era rpg all right, but it's entirely built around grinding. Don't get me wrong, the individual chapters are the most cliche-anime that they can be, but just like Live a Live, there's some sasuga moments that leaves you just ready to wreck some crazy boss fight with your most broken skills and spells and that's something that happen very often.
This game would work wonders as a tv show.
I must elaborate further though. While i was bored after reaching all cast chapter 2 — and that was quite soon in-game — i've managed to optimize my party members with secondary jobs, found EX Skills while exploring tha map, even some badass looking weapons with broken stats that managed to carry my travelers thoughout the mid section of the game.
Now that i've finished most of the exploring, the game left me feeling a little bored, there is many secret challenges ahead, towards the true ending and all, but it keeps me wondering, is it worth it? Playing this game for days straight was worth something for me, but i just can't seem to lose this bad taste that i'm playing a sandbox rpg with no soul.
The game is filled to the brimm with beautiful pixel characters, that 16bit nostalgia drive but at the same time we're trapped in this world where there's no true emotional bond between the characters, we get travel banter in the form of a notification on the top of the screen and cross-stories that are just anime filler episodes. The grand scheme of things is somehow linked to every protagonist of the game but there's a lot of room to improve.
This game lacks the drive of the characters of Chrono Trigger, a goal and that teamwork banter that also exists in their individual stories. It feels really strange that character chapters are written like this. I'm keeping the 2,5 stars but i'm also warning you that there is fun here and you should check it out.
Castti is MAMA
Octopath Traveler II is a fully realized and wonderful HD-2D JRPG from Square Enix that is full of charm and heart. While there some unfortunately typical genre shortcomings, the full experience is definitely one of the best JRPGs I have ever played.
Octopath Traveler II is centered around 8 unique characters that fit into some typical RPG archetypes, the samurai prince, the cleric, a hunter, etc. The way the party kind of forms together is a little clunky as not much exposition is given to support them joining your group other than they are on some kind of adventure/quest of their own. My favorite of the 8 is definitely Partitio, the merchant character, who's southern salesman charm just bursts off the screen, I love it every time he says "Thankee Kindly!".
The music, composed by Yasunori Nishiki is another extremely high selling point. There are multiple town and battle scores that really elevate the exploration of the world and the cutscenes. Also I have been saving and quitting the game app and relaunching it just to have the main menu music on in the background.
The combat is your standard turn based system that is really fine tuned for speed of play and simplicity of design. Each enemy will have a few weapon/element types that they are weak to that if you hit enough times it will 'break' them and cause them to take increased damage as well as skipping their action this turn and the next one. The BP system, which allows you to add additional weapon swings or boost your spells/abilities, and the latent abilities, each characters 'special' ability so to speak, add good depth but don't much up or complicate the proceedings. The job system allows you to fully flesh out your roster so you have can have every class available for the tougher fights.
The only real bummer is that there is some grinding required to keep up with the games level recommendations for the later missions. It even got to a point where I was 10 levels behind for some the quests on the map. In total, it took several hours of just mindless enemy grinding to catch back up. The side quests in the game are plentiful with each city/town having several to get, the solutions and paths for these side quests range from very simple to a little too hard to find in my experience. The map is good looking and easy to read, it would be helpful if it had a little more detail. Maybe just some simple checkmarks if you have completely explored an area/dungeon and some aids for the side quests.
The end game is very difficult which is another JRPG hallmark, I wish it hadn't been that way because the combat was not what was driving my enjoyment of the game the most. End game bosses can 1 or 2 shot characters who are 10 levels over the recommended if you aren't prepared. The final bosses even require you to use all 8 characters in 2 split groups back to back. Overall, that is a lot of gearing and grinding to have any hope in these fights.
Octopath Traveler II is centered around 8 unique characters that fit into some typical RPG archetypes, the samurai prince, the cleric, a hunter, etc. The way the party kind of forms together is a little clunky as not much exposition is given to support them joining your group other than they are on some kind of adventure/quest of their own. My favorite of the 8 is definitely Partitio, the merchant character, who's southern salesman charm just bursts off the screen, I love it every time he says "Thankee Kindly!".
The music, composed by Yasunori Nishiki is another extremely high selling point. There are multiple town and battle scores that really elevate the exploration of the world and the cutscenes. Also I have been saving and quitting the game app and relaunching it just to have the main menu music on in the background.
The combat is your standard turn based system that is really fine tuned for speed of play and simplicity of design. Each enemy will have a few weapon/element types that they are weak to that if you hit enough times it will 'break' them and cause them to take increased damage as well as skipping their action this turn and the next one. The BP system, which allows you to add additional weapon swings or boost your spells/abilities, and the latent abilities, each characters 'special' ability so to speak, add good depth but don't much up or complicate the proceedings. The job system allows you to fully flesh out your roster so you have can have every class available for the tougher fights.
The only real bummer is that there is some grinding required to keep up with the games level recommendations for the later missions. It even got to a point where I was 10 levels behind for some the quests on the map. In total, it took several hours of just mindless enemy grinding to catch back up. The side quests in the game are plentiful with each city/town having several to get, the solutions and paths for these side quests range from very simple to a little too hard to find in my experience. The map is good looking and easy to read, it would be helpful if it had a little more detail. Maybe just some simple checkmarks if you have completely explored an area/dungeon and some aids for the side quests.
The end game is very difficult which is another JRPG hallmark, I wish it hadn't been that way because the combat was not what was driving my enjoyment of the game the most. End game bosses can 1 or 2 shot characters who are 10 levels over the recommended if you aren't prepared. The final bosses even require you to use all 8 characters in 2 split groups back to back. Overall, that is a lot of gearing and grinding to have any hope in these fights.
Played, platinumed, and just wow what a game. Phenomenal OST, all 8 characters are enjoyable and while some chapters lack a little in comparison to others the chapters that work, WORK. A must play for any Jrpg fan.
I remember seeing the first Octopath Traveler trailer back in the day. That's when I first fell in love with the HD-2D art style. When it comes to the actual game behind the style, it's alright. Some decent characters, a great battle system, amazing soundtrack, and a mixed bag of narrative. When seeing that the game was getting a sequel, I was cautiously optimistic. There were so many issues from the first game that I wanted to see fixed. I'm happy to report that Octopath Traveler 2 fixes many of the issues from the previous game, while standing on its own as a fantastic JRPG for fans of the genre.
Similar to its older brother, Octopath 2's stories are varied when it comes to their overall quality. However, they are overall much improved over the original. There are only two stories that I am mixed on, that being Agnea the dancer and Partitio the merchant. Agnea's is just weak all around, and although there are elements of Partitio's that could have been done better, his voice actor's great performance makes up for it. All of the other stories are extremely interesting and well done. In particular, Osvald's story of revenge and Temenos' detective tale are the game's major highlights narratively speaking. Speaking of voice actors, everyone in the main cast gives a fantastic performance.
The visuals are yet another highlight, like the previous game. The HD-2D style continues to be one of the best things that Square Enix has created. The music also continues to be a major highlight as well. Though I think that the first game may have the better soundtrack overall.
The battle system is even better than in the original. Every mechanic from the previous games are still there, but they added even more to it. Every character now has a special meter that builds up either through attacking enemy weakness or being attacked. These abilities range from super powerful attacks, to more strategic abilities that can help turn the tide of battle. It further deepens the already deep and strategic combat.
While there is so much to love in this game, there are some missteps as well. The biggest thing, which was a big issue in the last game as well, is the lack of character interactions for the vast majority of the experience. To be fair, the developers tried to combat this by adding more banter sections, and even added a set of quests called "crossed paths," where two of the eight characters interact in a particular questline. However, things still feel extremely disconnected between characters. All of the eight storylines lack any cutscenes with the other main characters. In fact, when characters do start to interact at the very end of the game, they seem as though they have little to no idea what happened in the other characters' stories. I don't understand why this has to be the case with this series. I love that there are so many different stories with their own tones and vibes to them, but why does this prevent meaningful character interactions?
The game still lacks very interesting side quests imo. There are some that are interesting and take you to meaningful places, or at least have interesting stories, but the majority of them aren't very interesting. I skipped a lot of them due to this. I'd like to see the next entry have more involved side quests. Maybe ones that allow our characters interacting more as well? Just an idea.
Even with my complaints, Octopath Traveler II was an amazing time. It's such a big improvement over the first game. While there is still room to grow from here, the developers did an amazing job with this entry. This is a game for JRPG lovers everywhere.
Similar to its older brother, Octopath 2's stories are varied when it comes to their overall quality. However, they are overall much improved over the original. There are only two stories that I am mixed on, that being Agnea the dancer and Partitio the merchant. Agnea's is just weak all around, and although there are elements of Partitio's that could have been done better, his voice actor's great performance makes up for it. All of the other stories are extremely interesting and well done. In particular, Osvald's story of revenge and Temenos' detective tale are the game's major highlights narratively speaking. Speaking of voice actors, everyone in the main cast gives a fantastic performance.
The visuals are yet another highlight, like the previous game. The HD-2D style continues to be one of the best things that Square Enix has created. The music also continues to be a major highlight as well. Though I think that the first game may have the better soundtrack overall.
The battle system is even better than in the original. Every mechanic from the previous games are still there, but they added even more to it. Every character now has a special meter that builds up either through attacking enemy weakness or being attacked. These abilities range from super powerful attacks, to more strategic abilities that can help turn the tide of battle. It further deepens the already deep and strategic combat.
While there is so much to love in this game, there are some missteps as well. The biggest thing, which was a big issue in the last game as well, is the lack of character interactions for the vast majority of the experience. To be fair, the developers tried to combat this by adding more banter sections, and even added a set of quests called "crossed paths," where two of the eight characters interact in a particular questline. However, things still feel extremely disconnected between characters. All of the eight storylines lack any cutscenes with the other main characters. In fact, when characters do start to interact at the very end of the game, they seem as though they have little to no idea what happened in the other characters' stories. I don't understand why this has to be the case with this series. I love that there are so many different stories with their own tones and vibes to them, but why does this prevent meaningful character interactions?
The game still lacks very interesting side quests imo. There are some that are interesting and take you to meaningful places, or at least have interesting stories, but the majority of them aren't very interesting. I skipped a lot of them due to this. I'd like to see the next entry have more involved side quests. Maybe ones that allow our characters interacting more as well? Just an idea.
Even with my complaints, Octopath Traveler II was an amazing time. It's such a big improvement over the first game. While there is still room to grow from here, the developers did an amazing job with this entry. This is a game for JRPG lovers everywhere.
Menudo viaje.
Ya de primeras debo comentar que el primero me gustó mucho. Estaba relativamente en la minoría en ese sentido. El sistema de combate me maravilló con su estrategia y profundidad y me gustó cómo la trama era una serie de viñetas de distintas personas.
Octopath II es continuista pero mejora absolutamente todo. Las historias son más profundas, dramáticas e interesantes, al igual que los personajes. El sistema de combate está más balanceado y propone cambios nuevos en clases y el sistema de potencial que funciona muy bien. El mundo es mucho más variado...
Realmente es puro perfeccionamiento de lo que había antes y a mí me ha maravillado. Es desafiante pero justo. Un JRPG con un combate por turnos donde se debe escoger muy minuciosamente cada acción, habilidades secundarias y más.
Ya de primeras debo comentar que el primero me gustó mucho. Estaba relativamente en la minoría en ese sentido. El sistema de combate me maravilló con su estrategia y profundidad y me gustó cómo la trama era una serie de viñetas de distintas personas.
Octopath II es continuista pero mejora absolutamente todo. Las historias son más profundas, dramáticas e interesantes, al igual que los personajes. El sistema de combate está más balanceado y propone cambios nuevos en clases y el sistema de potencial que funciona muy bien. El mundo es mucho más variado...
Realmente es puro perfeccionamiento de lo que había antes y a mí me ha maravillado. Es desafiante pero justo. Un JRPG con un combate por turnos donde se debe escoger muy minuciosamente cada acción, habilidades secundarias y más.
What a wonderful step up from the first game (which I love wholeheartedly as well!). The music is absolutely incredible as always, and the battles, bosses, characters, storylines all come together in a world that feels so alive, with each town and NPC having their own distinct personalities and little stories that you can't help but snoop into at every chance you get with a variety of path actions.
It's clear that Team Asano took the first game's criticism to heart - this time, you can actually feel that these travelers are friends, as their storylines intertwine towards a very beautiful and satisfying ending and epilogue.
After 85 hours and doing everything there is to do in this game, I sincerely feel like Octopath Traveler II is right up there with the best of the best in the genre.
It's clear that Team Asano took the first game's criticism to heart - this time, you can actually feel that these travelers are friends, as their storylines intertwine towards a very beautiful and satisfying ending and epilogue.
After 85 hours and doing everything there is to do in this game, I sincerely feel like Octopath Traveler II is right up there with the best of the best in the genre.
It's been such a long time since I've genuinely had such an amazing exoerience playing a game as long as this. Everything. EVERYTHING is refined to a crisp and it improved on what was already fantastic from the last game.
Wow. I loved the party in this so much it hurts to be finished with their journeys. Each story felt fresh and engaging while still finding small ways to connect the party. First time in a good while that I've felt compelled to want to see the entire world of a game like this. I found myself getting lost often and enjoying every second of it. also the music is FIRE.
If there is a manual on how to make (almost) perfect sequels to games, then the devs of Octopath 2 surely read it and followed it exactly.
It is still exactly the same game at its core - meaning that if you disliked the first one, Octopath 2 won’t be a revelation to you. But for the fans - this is a treat. Addition of cross stories and changes of pacing in individual stories are great. Reworks of base jobs, “limit breaks” and license system are solid additions to gameplay, although I feel like devs dropped the ball a bit regarding advanced jobs. Day/night cycle and extra path actions also add a nice spin on exploration and side quests. And the final scenario including the last boss and the epilogue sequence was a perfect ending of this journey.
Truly, the real Octopath was the Travelers we made along the way.
It is still exactly the same game at its core - meaning that if you disliked the first one, Octopath 2 won’t be a revelation to you. But for the fans - this is a treat. Addition of cross stories and changes of pacing in individual stories are great. Reworks of base jobs, “limit breaks” and license system are solid additions to gameplay, although I feel like devs dropped the ball a bit regarding advanced jobs. Day/night cycle and extra path actions also add a nice spin on exploration and side quests. And the final scenario including the last boss and the epilogue sequence was a perfect ending of this journey.
Truly, the real Octopath was the Travelers we made along the way.
7/10
I think Octopath Traveler 2 beats out the first in every single aspect. I don't think I've ever felt more invested in how a game's characters, music, and story all connect and build up until I played this game. I think the worst part about this game is that it ends, and I was left with post-game depression hard the morning after I had finally finished it. What an incredible game.
Also, I fight for my friends.
Also, I fight for my friends.
I desperately wanted to like this game - it's gorgeous, it sounds great, it has an undeniable charm. But it's not scratching that one itch that's most important to me in an RPG - the plot.
I've put in around 40ish hours, finished 4 character stories, I'm sitting on the last chapter of Castti's story, and it's just become a struggle for me. I don't think I can continue.
The 4 stories I finished were the ones that peaked by interest from the start, and not one of them has satisfied me at all. I don't think the handful of chapters format is enough to fully realize the potential of some of these stories, and honestly, the writing isn't particularly great anyway (Throne's story in particular left a bad taste in my mouth).
Gameplay wise, it's fine. It's serviceable. I'm a sucker for a job-based battle system, so that's probably the best part of the actual game for me. Everything else feels quite shallow, the exploration, side quests, and especially the path actions. The grind really starts to kick in after a while aswell, and when you're grinding for plot that you're not even enjoying, it becomes a case of what's the point?
So yeah, I think I'm done with it. I don't think this series is for me, it reminds me of the SaGa games and those don't gel with me either, so it is what it is.
2 stars felt too low, and 3 stars is too high for me personally, so taking everything else into account, 2 and a half feels fair. I'm most certainly in the minority here. Pretty much everyone loves this game, which I can respect. It's nice to see an RPG do well.
I've put in around 40ish hours, finished 4 character stories, I'm sitting on the last chapter of Castti's story, and it's just become a struggle for me. I don't think I can continue.
The 4 stories I finished were the ones that peaked by interest from the start, and not one of them has satisfied me at all. I don't think the handful of chapters format is enough to fully realize the potential of some of these stories, and honestly, the writing isn't particularly great anyway (Throne's story in particular left a bad taste in my mouth).
Gameplay wise, it's fine. It's serviceable. I'm a sucker for a job-based battle system, so that's probably the best part of the actual game for me. Everything else feels quite shallow, the exploration, side quests, and especially the path actions. The grind really starts to kick in after a while aswell, and when you're grinding for plot that you're not even enjoying, it becomes a case of what's the point?
So yeah, I think I'm done with it. I don't think this series is for me, it reminds me of the SaGa games and those don't gel with me either, so it is what it is.
2 stars felt too low, and 3 stars is too high for me personally, so taking everything else into account, 2 and a half feels fair. I'm most certainly in the minority here. Pretty much everyone loves this game, which I can respect. It's nice to see an RPG do well.
OK, I'm done with this game. At least for a while. 80 hours in, 4 out of 8 character stories finished, and this game lost my interest. Don't take me wrong, I've enjoyed the gameplay quite a lot, the game looks beautiful, the combat mechanic is really nice, but the time the final boss battles takes is ridiculous and some of the stories quite boring. I hope to get back to this game sometime, but I got to give it a break for a while.
Not feelin' it. The world is too static, the characters and story are too paint-by-numbers, (Except Temenos, which was a highlight) and the battle system feels a bit stale despite all the mechanics and choices. The 8-character, open world structure creates a ton of awkward, immersion-breaking moments and there's nothing motivating me to move forward.
Octopath 2 was pretty much exactly what I expected and wanted. The first game is one of my very favorites, and while this game certainly didn't surpass it, I had a lot of fun. I am surprised by how faithful it was to the ideas of the first game as the first received a lot of (undeserved) criticism for things like its structure, which is virtually unchanged here. There are some deviations- with varying success in its execution- but overall it kept the experience that I loved about the first intact while giving a new set of characters and a world to enjoy. Fun time
Wow… I liked the first Octopath Traveller, but this one blows it out of the water with how much better all the stories are and all the improves to the game as a whole. It’s just amazing
Tudo nesse jogo é um espetáculo refinado e construído de maneira simétrica e balanceada, dos visuais 2D-3D aos sistema de combate e skills. Um dos melhores JRPG's já feitos, e um dos melhores jogos do switch com folga. A Square Enix quando entrega o orçamento e a autonomia nas mãos do time certo, sempre entrega obras primorosas.
Ah Octopath, a series I want to love so much more but a few issues eventually catch up and wear me down.
II does build upon what was a mostly solid foundation of the first game, adding in things like Crossed Paths to get a little more interactions within the cast, and the new latent abilities which help make each character feel more unique in battle as each one gets their own special move, like Agnea being able to make single target spells hit every target or Partitio being able to refill his BP. This coupled with better knowledge on how important gear is in Octopath and how to make full use of Bewildering Grace allowed me to push much further than I did in the original, even beating 3 stories, before it's issues caught up to me after 60ish hours.
For all the improvements this game made, the main issues I had with the first game went unaddressed here. My main issue is the game does not respect my time. EXP once again is limited to only your active party members, so if you wanna experience every story, you're constantly needing to level up inactive party members so they're not getting wiped in a single hit. Difficulty options could've helped with that as well, like having an easy mode that gives more EXP so you're not relying on propping a 0.1% x100 EXP Bewildering Grace so much. I don't mind grinding a little bit but my gosh it felt like every chapter I was having to level up a character so I could enjoy their story and it wore me down. There's also no random encounter slider so there's also the frustration of having to constantly run from battles when you just want to explore and try and find some better gear. And the most frustrating thing about these issues is that this team already had all these options in the Bravely games on 3DS.
I did manage to put 60 hours into this though, so it's not all frustrations. I adore the HD 2D aesthetic, the environments are beautiful and it makes the world a joy to look at. The stories here are a step up from the original, with Partitio trying to eradicate poverty and Temenos little mystery ride being highlights for me. Also enjoyed Throne's story a lot, there's a lot of interesting narratives here. The day and night stuff is fun, with different path actions opening up and being able to explore the seas is very cool. I also appreciate the turn based battle system and random encounters in this game felt less resource draining and less HP spongy compared to the first game.
Frustrations aside from issues I was hoping to have been addressed, Octopath Traveler II is a good game and for those that don't mind a little bit of grinding there is a lot to love here.
II does build upon what was a mostly solid foundation of the first game, adding in things like Crossed Paths to get a little more interactions within the cast, and the new latent abilities which help make each character feel more unique in battle as each one gets their own special move, like Agnea being able to make single target spells hit every target or Partitio being able to refill his BP. This coupled with better knowledge on how important gear is in Octopath and how to make full use of Bewildering Grace allowed me to push much further than I did in the original, even beating 3 stories, before it's issues caught up to me after 60ish hours.
For all the improvements this game made, the main issues I had with the first game went unaddressed here. My main issue is the game does not respect my time. EXP once again is limited to only your active party members, so if you wanna experience every story, you're constantly needing to level up inactive party members so they're not getting wiped in a single hit. Difficulty options could've helped with that as well, like having an easy mode that gives more EXP so you're not relying on propping a 0.1% x100 EXP Bewildering Grace so much. I don't mind grinding a little bit but my gosh it felt like every chapter I was having to level up a character so I could enjoy their story and it wore me down. There's also no random encounter slider so there's also the frustration of having to constantly run from battles when you just want to explore and try and find some better gear. And the most frustrating thing about these issues is that this team already had all these options in the Bravely games on 3DS.
I did manage to put 60 hours into this though, so it's not all frustrations. I adore the HD 2D aesthetic, the environments are beautiful and it makes the world a joy to look at. The stories here are a step up from the original, with Partitio trying to eradicate poverty and Temenos little mystery ride being highlights for me. Also enjoyed Throne's story a lot, there's a lot of interesting narratives here. The day and night stuff is fun, with different path actions opening up and being able to explore the seas is very cool. I also appreciate the turn based battle system and random encounters in this game felt less resource draining and less HP spongy compared to the first game.
Frustrations aside from issues I was hoping to have been addressed, Octopath Traveler II is a good game and for those that don't mind a little bit of grinding there is a lot to love here.
Uno de los mejores rpg de la consola.
Mejora todos los aspectos con respecto a la primera entrega y añade más aún. El combate y los jobs se ha refinado hasta un punto muy alto.
Como pega (y teniendo en cuenta que el juego me ha encantado) quizás, lo noto demasiado largo.
De las 40 a las 85 horas, nada en mi partida había cambiado.
Mejora todos los aspectos con respecto a la primera entrega y añade más aún. El combate y los jobs se ha refinado hasta un punto muy alto.
Como pega (y teniendo en cuenta que el juego me ha encantado) quizás, lo noto demasiado largo.
De las 40 a las 85 horas, nada en mi partida había cambiado.
Very serviceable if somewhat unambitious sequel to a solid first game. By far the best part is the fact that it's a modern RPG that's absolutely bursting with towns, secret areas, and cool turn based abilities to unlock - just proves that this old school style still has its place. The combat system is also tuned just about perfectly, and the ending encounters genuinely force you to consider all of your tactical options in a really fun way. Story is still nothing to write home about which has so far been the biggest flaw of this series.
ME LO METO POR EL CULO
Beautiful epilogue :)
Game is still has issues with making the interconnected stories more significant, but definitely an improvement vs OT1.
Game is still has issues with making the interconnected stories more significant, but definitely an improvement vs OT1.
This review contains spoilers
Cast is substantially better than the first game, dungeon design is better, combat is better.
Running is still stupid and too punishing, the scholar skill should just negate encounters instead of making them less of a chance.
Edited; the final boss isn't THAT bad but it does take a lot of prep and it is a massive difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game; just a side-note.
Asides from those complaints, this absolutely swamps the first game in every single way possible.
Running is still stupid and too punishing, the scholar skill should just negate encounters instead of making them less of a chance.
Edited; the final boss isn't THAT bad but it does take a lot of prep and it is a massive difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game; just a side-note.
Asides from those complaints, this absolutely swamps the first game in every single way possible.
Fantastic game! I recommend any JRPG fan play this. It is quite a haul. I clocked in around 60 hours. Didn't do all side quests or mega boss.
First off. I have to note there is a save game destroying bug. Happened to me once over 20 hours in. It was impossible to recover my game. It was overwritten on steam and gone on the PC. Internet tells me this isn't a rare occasion. So be weary of that and make periodic backups of your saves. To get around this I used a cheat engine to auto win battles, increase movement speed, set levels.. that kind of stuff so I could shoot my back back to where I was. Took about 4.5 hours. Not great.. it wasnt' the only bug I encountered either. One of my attempts at the end boss barely failed but a core mechanic of the game just.. stopped working. I couldn't view turn orders or use a special ability you gain for the fight at all.
Octopath 2 has a great battle system. Its focused around breaking enemies and piling the damage on. I'll admit i'm getting tired of break systmes as square really seems to favor them lately but I still enjoyed the game quite a bit. Charging up your attacks feels good. Theres no much of a risk reward, its just choosing when to take your reward. A tweak to add more risk and thought would be nice but still overall a really good system. Each enemy has a set of weaknesses that will lower its break game. All 6 weapon types and all the magic possibilities.
Every character has their own class to improve in but can also equip a secondary class. Classes also determine the weapons you can use. There were points I felt a little held back by this. The balance of the game is done pretty well but daggers feel largely useless. They felt by far the rarest weakness an enemy could have. This made using a character with a main class dedicated to daggers difficult. You had to use secondary classes that would grant them better weapon options instead of choosing what fun abilities you could have.
I enjoyed all the characters and storyline. I had my favorites of course but they did a good job making sure each one was entertaining. Even some I wasn't that interested in sucked me in in their second chapter with some nice surprises. I will fault the character progressions. All of them seem to have flat progression arks. I would have loved to see some real progress instead of just the static characters. (The dancers story is the weakest and really kinda falls apart in its final chapter. In somewhat of a hilarious way tho. Like they gave up and just added some wackyness to it that does work)
Speaking of story tho. The game frames itself as over after you've finished all 8 story lines. Altho it doesn't roll credits which is an excellent choice. There is a second they call "more stories" or something along those lines. Its the actual end of the game. I wish they didn't frame it as extend content when it reframes the entire game and is the real ending. This is mandatory if you're going to really understand the story and game itself.
I do have a complaint with how EXP is handled. Only your active characters gain XP and JP. I'm not a fan of that type of xp system even in regular JRPGs when I may never use that character sitting inactive anyways. Give them half xp, something. In a game like this tho its much worse. You will be using all 8 characters thru out the game. It makes some grinding to get your lower level characters up to snuff a must. Really bad decision by the designers on this part. I'm sure they did it to force you to mix your party up but it has the opposite effect. When I've got 4 real strong troops im less inclined to mix up the team and test things out. I'm only ever leveling and using those other troops up enough to just get past their story and keeping however man I can of my main 4. Just really bad decision making here. The game would really improve by xp sharing with your inactive members.
The visuals and music are great. Each character has their own theme music and I loved them. The game gets a lot of little things right it deserves a lot of credit for. There are 3 options for how to do cutscenes. press a button to continue after each dialog, continue on its own when the voice acting finishes, and an extra fast method that speeds up everything. You'll like be unable to read the messages as fast as they go. Probably not useful unless repeating after death or a second playthru. They are easily changed at any time. You can also increase the speed in battle to 2X. Thank you the game is long enough! Altho I do wish the 2x speed didn't effect messages mid battle. I did miss an important message in the final boss. When you open up your menu there is a healing options right there. No need to go into skills or magic or anything and find your characters with heals to use out of battle. Its just right there. There are others but thats good for now.
Overall great experience. Highly recommend. There are some more thoughts on the path abilities below but this is good for now. Enjoy!
This was some early thoughts I wrote down.
So far this game gets so many small things right. You can
make battle animations quicker, you can set dial boxes to do the standard RPG click when youre done reading, or automatically go to the next, or an extra fast speed without sound if you want to just read thru them quickly without the dialog. Just lots of little things like that that I love. I like emulating RPGs because I can make time run faster.
Once thing so far that has bugged me is out zoomed out your view is. I'd prefer it if the view was a little tighter so you could see the awesome sprites better. Also the map area map is too small. I've seen lots of complaints of that online. Just make everything a bit bigger. Not crazy but zoom us in some!
Combat system so far is good. I'm kind of tired of break combat systems. Square seems obsessed with them. Last couple games i've played from them have had it so its a little bit of a bummer to see it again here. The boost system is more unique and fun tho. I will say its not really a risk reward system tho its just all reward. You do have to use it strategically but it doesn't really leave you vulnerable.
So far i've loved all the characters. They all have unique personalities and play against some tropes. The cleric so far has been my favorite retelling of a cleric story. I can't wait to see where Osvalds story goes.
I am missing having a larger plot tho. So far every character has their own personal story and goal. I don't know if at some point everyone is unified with a common goal but i'm kind of hoping so. I'm still picking up characters but I hope and know that i'll see a shift after that. When I start advancing these beginning narratives with each character vs hunting out new ones.
Switching between day and night is a bread idea in theory but the way it works in this game is a little tiring. You get stronger monsters at night which is a nice touch but in towns it's annoying. I have different powers during the day and night and NPCs movr between the two. You basically have to go thru each town twice. During the day then at night while also using different powers. Less day/night would be better. It's used nicely here and there but ultimately its just too much.
First off. I have to note there is a save game destroying bug. Happened to me once over 20 hours in. It was impossible to recover my game. It was overwritten on steam and gone on the PC. Internet tells me this isn't a rare occasion. So be weary of that and make periodic backups of your saves. To get around this I used a cheat engine to auto win battles, increase movement speed, set levels.. that kind of stuff so I could shoot my back back to where I was. Took about 4.5 hours. Not great.. it wasnt' the only bug I encountered either. One of my attempts at the end boss barely failed but a core mechanic of the game just.. stopped working. I couldn't view turn orders or use a special ability you gain for the fight at all.
Octopath 2 has a great battle system. Its focused around breaking enemies and piling the damage on. I'll admit i'm getting tired of break systmes as square really seems to favor them lately but I still enjoyed the game quite a bit. Charging up your attacks feels good. Theres no much of a risk reward, its just choosing when to take your reward. A tweak to add more risk and thought would be nice but still overall a really good system. Each enemy has a set of weaknesses that will lower its break game. All 6 weapon types and all the magic possibilities.
Every character has their own class to improve in but can also equip a secondary class. Classes also determine the weapons you can use. There were points I felt a little held back by this. The balance of the game is done pretty well but daggers feel largely useless. They felt by far the rarest weakness an enemy could have. This made using a character with a main class dedicated to daggers difficult. You had to use secondary classes that would grant them better weapon options instead of choosing what fun abilities you could have.
I enjoyed all the characters and storyline. I had my favorites of course but they did a good job making sure each one was entertaining. Even some I wasn't that interested in sucked me in in their second chapter with some nice surprises. I will fault the character progressions. All of them seem to have flat progression arks. I would have loved to see some real progress instead of just the static characters. (The dancers story is the weakest and really kinda falls apart in its final chapter. In somewhat of a hilarious way tho. Like they gave up and just added some wackyness to it that does work)
Speaking of story tho. The game frames itself as over after you've finished all 8 story lines. Altho it doesn't roll credits which is an excellent choice. There is a second they call "more stories" or something along those lines. Its the actual end of the game. I wish they didn't frame it as extend content when it reframes the entire game and is the real ending. This is mandatory if you're going to really understand the story and game itself.
I do have a complaint with how EXP is handled. Only your active characters gain XP and JP. I'm not a fan of that type of xp system even in regular JRPGs when I may never use that character sitting inactive anyways. Give them half xp, something. In a game like this tho its much worse. You will be using all 8 characters thru out the game. It makes some grinding to get your lower level characters up to snuff a must. Really bad decision by the designers on this part. I'm sure they did it to force you to mix your party up but it has the opposite effect. When I've got 4 real strong troops im less inclined to mix up the team and test things out. I'm only ever leveling and using those other troops up enough to just get past their story and keeping however man I can of my main 4. Just really bad decision making here. The game would really improve by xp sharing with your inactive members.
The visuals and music are great. Each character has their own theme music and I loved them. The game gets a lot of little things right it deserves a lot of credit for. There are 3 options for how to do cutscenes. press a button to continue after each dialog, continue on its own when the voice acting finishes, and an extra fast method that speeds up everything. You'll like be unable to read the messages as fast as they go. Probably not useful unless repeating after death or a second playthru. They are easily changed at any time. You can also increase the speed in battle to 2X. Thank you the game is long enough! Altho I do wish the 2x speed didn't effect messages mid battle. I did miss an important message in the final boss. When you open up your menu there is a healing options right there. No need to go into skills or magic or anything and find your characters with heals to use out of battle. Its just right there. There are others but thats good for now.
Overall great experience. Highly recommend. There are some more thoughts on the path abilities below but this is good for now. Enjoy!
This was some early thoughts I wrote down.
So far this game gets so many small things right. You can
make battle animations quicker, you can set dial boxes to do the standard RPG click when youre done reading, or automatically go to the next, or an extra fast speed without sound if you want to just read thru them quickly without the dialog. Just lots of little things like that that I love. I like emulating RPGs because I can make time run faster.
Once thing so far that has bugged me is out zoomed out your view is. I'd prefer it if the view was a little tighter so you could see the awesome sprites better. Also the map area map is too small. I've seen lots of complaints of that online. Just make everything a bit bigger. Not crazy but zoom us in some!
Combat system so far is good. I'm kind of tired of break combat systems. Square seems obsessed with them. Last couple games i've played from them have had it so its a little bit of a bummer to see it again here. The boost system is more unique and fun tho. I will say its not really a risk reward system tho its just all reward. You do have to use it strategically but it doesn't really leave you vulnerable.
So far i've loved all the characters. They all have unique personalities and play against some tropes. The cleric so far has been my favorite retelling of a cleric story. I can't wait to see where Osvalds story goes.
I am missing having a larger plot tho. So far every character has their own personal story and goal. I don't know if at some point everyone is unified with a common goal but i'm kind of hoping so. I'm still picking up characters but I hope and know that i'll see a shift after that. When I start advancing these beginning narratives with each character vs hunting out new ones.
Switching between day and night is a bread idea in theory but the way it works in this game is a little tiring. You get stronger monsters at night which is a nice touch but in towns it's annoying. I have different powers during the day and night and NPCs movr between the two. You basically have to go thru each town twice. During the day then at night while also using different powers. Less day/night would be better. It's used nicely here and there but ultimately its just too much.
INCREDIBLE INCREDIBLE GAME I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!! i never played the first one but im SO glad i picked this one up. also it made me cry a couple times
the only thing that bothers me is the terrible sound mixing but otherwise stellar game. cant wait for octopath3
the only thing that bothers me is the terrible sound mixing but otherwise stellar game. cant wait for octopath3
Octopath Traveller 2 is remarkable in the sense that I've never seen a game that went so far out of its way to sabotage itself to no apparent benefit. The improved strength of character of the cast and the addictive gameplay fall way to the astoundingly bad story decisions and almost mean-spirited nature of the messages this game is trying to project. I haven't finished a single storyline- but I am 35 hours in and I am so incredibly tired of every single character. I will talk about the game itself and then give a quick overview of how the game handled each traveller's story.
The gameplay itself is as great as ever, it's incredibly fun and a fantastic modernization of typical jrpg combat. For most of the game, battles feel quick and satisfying, and the break mechanic is an entertaining strategy to play around. I love the additions of the dual-story chapters, which help to make your cast feel like friends and build their character. The game is still visually gorgeous, in fact my favorite parts of playing Octopath have been exploring all the various areas and just taking in how beautiful everything looks. It feels like you're wandering around a little diorama set.. like you're on a real adventure. That's easily my favorite thing in this game... which is sad, considering Octopath 2 refuses to let you skip or turn off random encounters. There's a skill or two that reduces the rate, but it's still really annoying when you just want to go for a walk, listening to the calming music but every 3 seconds you're forced into a battle. Escape is not guaranteed, which makes matters worse.
I also said that the gameplay is fun at first, but towards the end of your party's storyline it gets harder and harder to raise your level. I hate grinding, and you apparently have to grind a lot- I'm level 40 and every final boss has a recommended level of 45... but you should be comfortably above this because the final bosses of this game are an absolute disgrace. I've only done Throne's and Agnea's but they are frustrating. Agnea's takes forever and it's split into two parts, and your opponent can steal your party members? Two of them? She stole Hikari who I made into an absolute powerhouse, so I basically just lost in a way that didn't feel to be my fault, with 30 minutes of my time out the window. It's so demoralizing and to be honest, makes me feel like quitting.
But I could power through it if the story was good. It started strong but slowly snowballed into being just utterly irredeemable in my eyes. I will go character by character and dissect each story, but first let me say that I can really, really, really feel the Shinzo Abe influence in this game. The biggest fault Octopath 2 has for me is this: every character is somehow connected to a parent or is doing what they're doing for a parent. By everyone, I mean it even extends to NPCs. There is even a very morbid underlying message to the way this game conveys parenthood. The children in this game are treated as an extension of their parents, no exceptions. Your mom is a dancer? You want to be a dancer. Your dad is a baker? You're a baker. There are no bad families in this game.... in the characters eyes. Because even when a mother WHIPS AND BEATS children en masse, and raises them to be assassins, she still deserves forgiveness because she was nice a few times and she's your mother! I can not overlook this philosophy the game is insistent on pushing onto the player. And that extends to the forgiveness part too, someone could kidnap a child, drug her, tell her ailing mother she should just drop dead so he can capitalize on the town... but it's OK! He had everyone's best interest in mind, murder is bad and we should forgive him!
I will go into more issues on it this next segment but you can feel the old conservative Japanese man blood flowing through this game, and it's a real shame. It's obsession with procreation and their visions on autonomy turns this game into something of a disgrace to read through. Octopath 2 has really amazing female NPCs but unfortunately all that progress is reduced by the inherent misogyny this game presents.
Now onto the character plot break downs:
Hikari:
Of noble birth, Hikari wants to free his country from the oppressive rule of his brother and become a king that ushers in an era without bloodshed. A pretty basic tale... I actually like the character of Hikari a lot, but if you know anything about history, his entire story is impossible to take seriously. First off, his evil brother... this goes for all villains in this game, but they are cartoonishly wicked. With no depth at all, he wants to rule because he desires the world to be his. He also wants to call for every lowborn in his country to be executed. What? Even soldiers pick on the poor folk, but aren't soldiers barely above peasants if we are going off patriarchy? Even the most tyrannical of kings ushered in debt-wiping "clean slates" because they KNEW their kingdom rode on the back of the farmers and the slaves that built their buildings. You're just going to have a kingdom with only an upper-class? Who is going to do your work?? Everyone seems to go along with this without thinking and it's impossible to even give a shit when everyone's dancing around, showing off how evil they are. Hikari himself has a major flaw, which is that his "cursed blood" is just embarrassing to watch and I'd never say this about anything. It sucks. I will not get into the fact that Hikari wants a kingdom of equality... but still strives to be a king, and doesn't seem to have an interest in actually changing the hierarchy of their social classes.
Agnea:
The best story in the game by far, warm-hearted and Agnea is just fun to watch. It is still plagued by the fact that apparently no one in this world is capable of doing anything without their parent doing it first, but I enjoyed watching her grow as a person with her new friends, and I love Giselle.
Throne:
Her adventure started out so good, ended up so bad. I... have no words for her final chapter... just revolting. I thought Throne would be a character that broke the weird parent thing this game had going on, because her metaphorical parents were the ones keeping her chained, but apparently even abuse is not enough to warrant hating someone. Her big reveal basically crushed anything she had going for her- relying on her heritage yet again more than her personal accomplishments. And that final boss? Had nothing to do with Throne's story, nothing! It was so revolting and misogynistic. And not to mention unfun to fight.
Castti:
My starting character and one I generally liked... till everyone started calling her "mother hen" cause she's an apothecary, though that's her job. Her big reveal too was not written with much care. I haven't done her last chapter but I can't imagine how it can get worse. Spoilers- this game really said to me that even the man who randomly decided to massacre untold amounts of people deserves forgiveness. Is he supposed to be mentally ill? Because that is some poor writing. A healer spontaneously turned bad because "life is suffering so I'll just kill everyone to free them" is so childish.
Ochette:
This character is unforgivable. Where do I begin? To start with, she is a race of humanoid beast that is very, very clearly inspired by island indigenous people. Already off to a bad start, but of course they talk in broken English. Ok. Do you not get it yet? Apparently not because there's human colonists that liken them to "dogs who can barely speak" and wants to take their territory. I could maybe, maybe see any of this as something in good faith but they couldn't even do any research into indigenous societies at all. Not in the way they are socially organized, not in the way they treat people, not in their philosophies, not even something as simple as what- if any- economy do they have. Ochette, the saying of your tribe is "the weak are meat for the string to eat?" and if that's not all, you're a hunter that feels as if they have direct control over the 'balance' of the forest. And of course, she can hear the trees and all that shit. You have to TRADE meat with the shopkeeper, instead of just giving them coin, somehow even going more out of their way to be ignorant. I don't know if anyone told them this, but the concept of money and exchange doesn't persist in every society from every time and place ever. I could go on, but this character just spits in the face of native peoples. A native character would of been interesting! In fact, Haanit from the first game might of been a better example than this girl.
Temenos:
An interesting character with a humorous and alright storyline, held back by the fact that the mystery present in his path is not strong, therefore making the investigation segments come off as stupid. I'm only halfway through with him so I hope this doesn't end badly like the others
Partitio:
He is blatantly stated to be capitalist that wants to end poverty.... through capitalism. I don't know what to say to that.
Lion Guy:
Haven't even started him though I am not really interested, at this point.
I truly do not know why the first Octopath got so much backlash. It had some flaws, but unlike this game it was very simple and did not go out of its way to seemingly destroy what is a very good base premise for no real reason. How the stories are now all connected in 2 does not matter to me, because the way they are connected is really insulting and ruins the quality of each characters tale. I want to have fun with this game so badly, but each time I try to appreciate something, for one reason or another, it gets in my way. I love Octopath and I see the ways in which this game shines, but it is so dulled by its final acts.
It was between this game and a hitachi magic wand and I think I chose wrong. Thank you so much for reading!
The gameplay itself is as great as ever, it's incredibly fun and a fantastic modernization of typical jrpg combat. For most of the game, battles feel quick and satisfying, and the break mechanic is an entertaining strategy to play around. I love the additions of the dual-story chapters, which help to make your cast feel like friends and build their character. The game is still visually gorgeous, in fact my favorite parts of playing Octopath have been exploring all the various areas and just taking in how beautiful everything looks. It feels like you're wandering around a little diorama set.. like you're on a real adventure. That's easily my favorite thing in this game... which is sad, considering Octopath 2 refuses to let you skip or turn off random encounters. There's a skill or two that reduces the rate, but it's still really annoying when you just want to go for a walk, listening to the calming music but every 3 seconds you're forced into a battle. Escape is not guaranteed, which makes matters worse.
I also said that the gameplay is fun at first, but towards the end of your party's storyline it gets harder and harder to raise your level. I hate grinding, and you apparently have to grind a lot- I'm level 40 and every final boss has a recommended level of 45... but you should be comfortably above this because the final bosses of this game are an absolute disgrace. I've only done Throne's and Agnea's but they are frustrating. Agnea's takes forever and it's split into two parts, and your opponent can steal your party members? Two of them? She stole Hikari who I made into an absolute powerhouse, so I basically just lost in a way that didn't feel to be my fault, with 30 minutes of my time out the window. It's so demoralizing and to be honest, makes me feel like quitting.
But I could power through it if the story was good. It started strong but slowly snowballed into being just utterly irredeemable in my eyes. I will go character by character and dissect each story, but first let me say that I can really, really, really feel the Shinzo Abe influence in this game. The biggest fault Octopath 2 has for me is this: every character is somehow connected to a parent or is doing what they're doing for a parent. By everyone, I mean it even extends to NPCs. There is even a very morbid underlying message to the way this game conveys parenthood. The children in this game are treated as an extension of their parents, no exceptions. Your mom is a dancer? You want to be a dancer. Your dad is a baker? You're a baker. There are no bad families in this game.... in the characters eyes. Because even when a mother WHIPS AND BEATS children en masse, and raises them to be assassins, she still deserves forgiveness because she was nice a few times and she's your mother! I can not overlook this philosophy the game is insistent on pushing onto the player. And that extends to the forgiveness part too, someone could kidnap a child, drug her, tell her ailing mother she should just drop dead so he can capitalize on the town... but it's OK! He had everyone's best interest in mind, murder is bad and we should forgive him!
I will go into more issues on it this next segment but you can feel the old conservative Japanese man blood flowing through this game, and it's a real shame. It's obsession with procreation and their visions on autonomy turns this game into something of a disgrace to read through. Octopath 2 has really amazing female NPCs but unfortunately all that progress is reduced by the inherent misogyny this game presents.
Now onto the character plot break downs:
Hikari:
Of noble birth, Hikari wants to free his country from the oppressive rule of his brother and become a king that ushers in an era without bloodshed. A pretty basic tale... I actually like the character of Hikari a lot, but if you know anything about history, his entire story is impossible to take seriously. First off, his evil brother... this goes for all villains in this game, but they are cartoonishly wicked. With no depth at all, he wants to rule because he desires the world to be his. He also wants to call for every lowborn in his country to be executed. What? Even soldiers pick on the poor folk, but aren't soldiers barely above peasants if we are going off patriarchy? Even the most tyrannical of kings ushered in debt-wiping "clean slates" because they KNEW their kingdom rode on the back of the farmers and the slaves that built their buildings. You're just going to have a kingdom with only an upper-class? Who is going to do your work?? Everyone seems to go along with this without thinking and it's impossible to even give a shit when everyone's dancing around, showing off how evil they are. Hikari himself has a major flaw, which is that his "cursed blood" is just embarrassing to watch and I'd never say this about anything. It sucks. I will not get into the fact that Hikari wants a kingdom of equality... but still strives to be a king, and doesn't seem to have an interest in actually changing the hierarchy of their social classes.
Agnea:
The best story in the game by far, warm-hearted and Agnea is just fun to watch. It is still plagued by the fact that apparently no one in this world is capable of doing anything without their parent doing it first, but I enjoyed watching her grow as a person with her new friends, and I love Giselle.
Throne:
Her adventure started out so good, ended up so bad. I... have no words for her final chapter... just revolting. I thought Throne would be a character that broke the weird parent thing this game had going on, because her metaphorical parents were the ones keeping her chained, but apparently even abuse is not enough to warrant hating someone. Her big reveal basically crushed anything she had going for her- relying on her heritage yet again more than her personal accomplishments. And that final boss? Had nothing to do with Throne's story, nothing! It was so revolting and misogynistic. And not to mention unfun to fight.
Castti:
My starting character and one I generally liked... till everyone started calling her "mother hen" cause she's an apothecary, though that's her job. Her big reveal too was not written with much care. I haven't done her last chapter but I can't imagine how it can get worse. Spoilers- this game really said to me that even the man who randomly decided to massacre untold amounts of people deserves forgiveness. Is he supposed to be mentally ill? Because that is some poor writing. A healer spontaneously turned bad because "life is suffering so I'll just kill everyone to free them" is so childish.
Ochette:
This character is unforgivable. Where do I begin? To start with, she is a race of humanoid beast that is very, very clearly inspired by island indigenous people. Already off to a bad start, but of course they talk in broken English. Ok. Do you not get it yet? Apparently not because there's human colonists that liken them to "dogs who can barely speak" and wants to take their territory. I could maybe, maybe see any of this as something in good faith but they couldn't even do any research into indigenous societies at all. Not in the way they are socially organized, not in the way they treat people, not in their philosophies, not even something as simple as what- if any- economy do they have. Ochette, the saying of your tribe is "the weak are meat for the string to eat?" and if that's not all, you're a hunter that feels as if they have direct control over the 'balance' of the forest. And of course, she can hear the trees and all that shit. You have to TRADE meat with the shopkeeper, instead of just giving them coin, somehow even going more out of their way to be ignorant. I don't know if anyone told them this, but the concept of money and exchange doesn't persist in every society from every time and place ever. I could go on, but this character just spits in the face of native peoples. A native character would of been interesting! In fact, Haanit from the first game might of been a better example than this girl.
Temenos:
An interesting character with a humorous and alright storyline, held back by the fact that the mystery present in his path is not strong, therefore making the investigation segments come off as stupid. I'm only halfway through with him so I hope this doesn't end badly like the others
Partitio:
He is blatantly stated to be capitalist that wants to end poverty.... through capitalism. I don't know what to say to that.
Lion Guy:
Haven't even started him though I am not really interested, at this point.
I truly do not know why the first Octopath got so much backlash. It had some flaws, but unlike this game it was very simple and did not go out of its way to seemingly destroy what is a very good base premise for no real reason. How the stories are now all connected in 2 does not matter to me, because the way they are connected is really insulting and ruins the quality of each characters tale. I want to have fun with this game so badly, but each time I try to appreciate something, for one reason or another, it gets in my way. I love Octopath and I see the ways in which this game shines, but it is so dulled by its final acts.
It was between this game and a hitachi magic wand and I think I chose wrong. Thank you so much for reading!
This review contains spoilers
Octopath Traveler II is everything that I wanted from the first game, almost. I think that Square did a fantastic job of taking criticism from the fans about the first game and channeling that into a fantastic sequel. If we're talking about strictly gameplay and music, this eclipses the original. But in terms of the story, I have some comments.
This is a point of contention for me in both games, as Octopath II is building off the system from the first game on character stories. It has a few improvements here and there, such as route splits, combined stories, etc. However, I did find myself feeling like I was just ready to set the game down towards the end, as it felt like the same old song and dance of arrive at new town, watch ten minutes of cutscene, go through a short dungeon, and fight a boss for every single chapter. Some chapters just skipped the dungeon, the boss, or even both which was jarring to me, but even still. I didn't find my expectations subverted or shaken in any capacity up until the final few hours of the game, which is where the most radical change happens between this game and the first.
My biggest issue with how Octopath II tells its story is the fact that the party still doesn't act like a cohesive group. I understand that this would be insanely difficult to pull off, as this is a very non-linear game in a genre that is defined by linear story telling, and it would be very hard to manage what characters are in the player party and etc, which is fine. But I found that the party banters were seldom enough to sate my desire for group interaction, as they're fairly shallow most of the time and don't really have me feeling any type of way. It makes the game feel like there are no stakes for the travelers outside of the role they play in their own story. The group faces no internal struggle, just as they don't grow closer either, that is until the last few hours. They just seem to be at arms length the entire game, until the Journey for Dawn, which FINALLY fixed my issues, but too little too late.
This lack of meaningful relationships for like 90% of the game made a lot of my choices on where I went and when feel like they had no stakes, and that I solely went there on a whim because I decided to. Like don't get me wrong, the individual character stories are pretty good, it's just that overall the game felt a little underwhelming in the overarching narrative, as even the final showdown is a little vacant of group togetherness and triumph as they all just spit character lines about themselves rather than interact in a meaningful way. In the end, this was still a massive improvement over the first game's story, but still felt a few steps removed from the answer I was hoping for.
My qualms about the story aside, the gameplay loop is actually quite fun, as each traveler feels like they have more options this time around, and the combat is MUCH more balanced (at least until you find all the Ochette exploits.) I also really like the soundtrack, so there's that. I can't complain with what we got, but man I almost wish they just focused more energy into a good Bravely Default game, as those games are the peak of what a great JRPG party is, even if their overall story is a little less good.
Nonetheless, I was satisfied with this sequel. But fuck them for trying to squeeze this game's dogshit title in at the end, that was a little painful ngl.
This is a point of contention for me in both games, as Octopath II is building off the system from the first game on character stories. It has a few improvements here and there, such as route splits, combined stories, etc. However, I did find myself feeling like I was just ready to set the game down towards the end, as it felt like the same old song and dance of arrive at new town, watch ten minutes of cutscene, go through a short dungeon, and fight a boss for every single chapter. Some chapters just skipped the dungeon, the boss, or even both which was jarring to me, but even still. I didn't find my expectations subverted or shaken in any capacity up until the final few hours of the game, which is where the most radical change happens between this game and the first.
My biggest issue with how Octopath II tells its story is the fact that the party still doesn't act like a cohesive group. I understand that this would be insanely difficult to pull off, as this is a very non-linear game in a genre that is defined by linear story telling, and it would be very hard to manage what characters are in the player party and etc, which is fine. But I found that the party banters were seldom enough to sate my desire for group interaction, as they're fairly shallow most of the time and don't really have me feeling any type of way. It makes the game feel like there are no stakes for the travelers outside of the role they play in their own story. The group faces no internal struggle, just as they don't grow closer either, that is until the last few hours. They just seem to be at arms length the entire game, until the Journey for Dawn, which FINALLY fixed my issues, but too little too late.
This lack of meaningful relationships for like 90% of the game made a lot of my choices on where I went and when feel like they had no stakes, and that I solely went there on a whim because I decided to. Like don't get me wrong, the individual character stories are pretty good, it's just that overall the game felt a little underwhelming in the overarching narrative, as even the final showdown is a little vacant of group togetherness and triumph as they all just spit character lines about themselves rather than interact in a meaningful way. In the end, this was still a massive improvement over the first game's story, but still felt a few steps removed from the answer I was hoping for.
My qualms about the story aside, the gameplay loop is actually quite fun, as each traveler feels like they have more options this time around, and the combat is MUCH more balanced (at least until you find all the Ochette exploits.) I also really like the soundtrack, so there's that. I can't complain with what we got, but man I almost wish they just focused more energy into a good Bravely Default game, as those games are the peak of what a great JRPG party is, even if their overall story is a little less good.
Nonetheless, I was satisfied with this sequel. But fuck them for trying to squeeze this game's dogshit title in at the end, that was a little painful ngl.
This review contains spoilers
I thought they'd learned from the mistakes of the original. And then they made Galdera.
Total playtime: 103 hours.
There is nothing bad that I can say about Octopath Traveler II. The developers improved every criticism I had about the first game and delivered a truly remarkable gaming experience.
There is nothing bad that I can say about Octopath Traveler II. The developers improved every criticism I had about the first game and delivered a truly remarkable gaming experience.